ConnieLene – KnitDesigner

I know I have forms to fill, stuff to plan etc. because we are relocating to New Zealand soon. But some mornings just require something else.

This morning I found a lovely summery yarn in my stash. Linie 238 Bagno. It is a 55% cotton and 45% Rayon variegated yarn with thick and thin sections in gorgeous colours evocative of the summer we are now longing for. link to Online-yarns.de product information

So while that Best Beloved worked on his forms for a new passport and those details needed for the relocation company I knitted a little moebius scarflette – using the lovely Cat Bordhi’s magic cast on and then did increases using the hyperbolic plane method. After the first row I knitted 5 rows with an increase every five stitches and ended up with a little something to wear around the neck – not too big, not too small, just right to add some colour over something light and summery.

It was a pleasure to knit, ever so easy. Knit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and increase; knit 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and increase till I was back at my stitch marker and cast off. Almost knitting a haiku. Needle size was 6.5mm.

Now I have to get back to that “To-do List” for our journeys ahead.

Bring on that summer, you hear!

Skill + 1UP or I think I want, I think I want to knit socks!!

Have I been upskilling myself in the knitting world in recent times?

I guess so. In the time since I arrived in Europe, specifically in the Netherlands at the end of August 2008 I have tried a number of techniques that I had never looked at previously and I have rekindled an interest in simple lace stitches. It has been easy to work on new techniques when away from all the interruptions that a normal life at home in New Zealand allows. In New Zealand one had friends to see, family to be with, stuff to do other than knitting, like gardening and so on. Here in the Netherlands Best Beloved is at work so I have peaceful time on my side, time to explore and to play with yarns and concepts and colours and obviously to explore and experience the Netherlands and so I have.

Carbon Footprint - Shadow Knitting

and then there is the orange crepe paper crown that I started, required for Queens Day on the 30th of April. I have also used dpn’s for the first time knitting a pair of simple ribbed fingerless gloves.

Feather and Fan arm warmers

Skirt with hyperbolic plane inc

But my big hairy goal – is sock knitting.

Which sock pattern would you recommend for a new sock knitter, me.

I can knit in the round, I can knit simple lace, I can follow charts, I can follow written instructions, I can knit with dpn’s, I have sock yarn, and I have IOU’s for 2 pairs of red socks.

Help please, advice requested. Which sock pattern do you recommend for plain red socks for the two men in my life, my son and my Best Beloved?

World Wide Words: states that Upskilling is a moderately common technical term and the Second Additions Volume of the Oxford English Dictionary cites a first use as long ago as 1983.

Upskilling refers to increasing the skills of workers, usually through training. Critics say that upskilled workers are not necessarily better paid, nor do they have better promotion prospects, and that upskilling benefits the employer rather than the worker.

I think the critics are nearly right – upskilled knitters are not necessarily better paid – but they have lots of fun, gain pleasure, have more to offer other knitters and are all round contented, well balanced, and interesting people.

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week

The fingerless gloves (nearly gauntlets, depending on point of view) are completed and gorgeous. So exciting as I have never designed anything for the hands before. The skirt is complete bar the waistband elastic, Top nearly done, just the neck band to finish (I had to undo the neck band and re knit the shoulders, I dropped a stitch and had to redo it, plus I didn’t like the finish). The beret is done and the cowl is done – but now I don’t like it!! what should I do with that – send without, send with, knit another, cry a lot – I don’t quite know.

Any ideas please please??

My in Vogue fashion statement – “out there street wear” – is missing something – the cowl thing, what a coward I am being about my moebius cowl.

I am, of course, delighted to hear and to see that in fact my love of capes and cloaks is not out of line with the fashion consensus for the coming Northern Winter.

Capes can be casual and comfortable, easy to throw around the shoulders. They can also be smart and sophisticated; they can be fun and sassy, and then of course they can be seriously sexy, sensuous, and just plain gorgeous. A cape can be punk or funky, and it can be ethnic or modern – a cape be any look you want, and it can compliment any clothing style that you like or can imagine.

SO the cape or cloak is great over an evening dress, a tank and jeans, a negligee, a summer dress, a formal dress, around the shoulders of a business suit – even over a a bikini or your sexy underwear. Capes Rock.

A cape is so easy to wear and you can wear it anywhere. It can be dressed up or down using various pins and brooches or ties – you decide how your cape should appear. It can also define itself by the yarns that are used to create the cloak or cape. Faux fur is a fashion trend for this coming winter and luxury mohairs are okay again.

It is a funny thing the cycling of yarns and garments, isn’t It? Why don’t we ever just say – “This is what I like, this is the colour I like, I am not concerned with trend reports, I am only concerned with what I love. For what it is worth – I love capes and cloaks and I love the earthy colours, the warmth and lightness of wearing a faux fur with a fine mohair or alpaca yarn, I love the purples and then the reds and then the blues and then …. well it seems I just love colour and in no particular order.

There is plenty of time to find the pattern and the yarns for your cape for the winter of 2010. My Etsy shop has the Kiwi Cape available pattern now and I will be adding the multicolour cape that is in the gallery very soon. It is so easy to knit being all garter stitch and it is an easy one to play with the yarns you have in your stash. There are others and I will announce them as I complete them.

The photo gallery is of some of my capes, cloaks and some little capelet, poncho pieces as well. As I locate photographs of others I shall add them to this gallery. I do hope you will find something here that gives you an idea or a plan for your winter wardrobe.

The Cape is perfect for a newer knitter – no sleeves, simple shaping, small enough to not get bored with and frustrated by. They are also ideal for trying new yarns and colours, or to use up yarns from your stash. In these more austere times a cape will not require a huge outlay in monies, and your cape will dress up all of your current wardrobe items.

So don’t allow the winter of 2010 be the winter of your discontent because you do not already have one or two trendy, knitted capes and cloaks ready to wear by the time the weather begins to turn.

I feel like I am buried under balls of many types – polystyrene for textile art knit applications in the public arena as well as hundreds of balls of yarn for patterns and ideas – and I come up for air and hope the ball in my hand is suitable for the idea running around in my head.

I have purchased 2 large polystyrene balls – one about 160 cm round and the other about 124cm. These nearly match two out in the big wide world. It means I do not have to go out and test the knitting against the balls.

The problem is, or it may not a problem and just something new to consider. I want to create textile art pieces for these balls for permanent exhibition.

How do you keep a ball standing still?

How will a knitted textile stand up to being on a spherical object long term?

Does anyone do it already – so that I can find out the answer to the permanancy question?

I think small round weights of some kind will hold it steady, or perhaps the ball could be set into a round saucer shape inside a square plinth or stand, or something. That part can be worked out quite well.

But the spherical textile – what will happen there – I do not know. So only time will tell, or maybe someone will help me with that information. I do hope so.

The trouble is that these balls keep on coming into my head space – and I am working on my patterns, and I do need to do to that to help pay for future yarns, and I am just a bit discombobulated.

I am also working out which patterns to include in my Intarsia book – so I become even more discombobulated – if that is possible.